What are the real risks for websites running on an outdated version of WordPress? Why install updates if the website is working properly? What to do to be able to rest easy?
Photo by: Sébastien Launay
WordPress
WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world. It is being used by most of websites globally (51% to 68%, depending on the source). Its exceptional popularity is due to many factors, the most important of them are:
Open Source (i.e. open and free code, anyone can edit it)
truly user-friendly interface – i.e. intuitiveness and ease of use
short implementation time for a website with standard functionalities
unique community which eventually gathered around the brand
huge number of addons (both free and premium) – themes and plugins.
Risks
Unfortunately, the huge popularity...

With our customers in mind we compiled a list of on-line tools (web applications) that are useful for people involved in internet marketing.
This little “cheat sheet” includes over 80 applications – two (the best two, in our opinion*) for every of 41 categories, divided into 9 groups:
Analytics
Advertising
Communications
SEO
Market Intelligence
Graphics
Social Media
Productivity
Testing
The list includes information if a tool is free or paid (or both).
Now we’re making the result of our work available in the form of an infographic.
Don’t miss the next edition of the infographic – subscribe to the post notifications.
Don’t worry – we publish rarely, but concisely. 😉
[click to enlarge]
[click to enlarge]
If you’d like to publish the...

You need to verify the work of the agency that built a new website for you? Or maybe you want to decide whether your old site should be renovated? Start with checking the most important features of the website on your own.
Photo by: U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. Fifth Fleet
Firstly, let’s be frank about one thing – no independent check of a website can compare to an audit performed by specialists. An audit – which requires knowledge and quite an amount of work – is an analysis of a site and assessment of its optimization as far as SEO, usability, conversion etc. are concerned. A report that is the result of the audit not only demonstrates the weaknesses but above all suggests solutions to improve the website within a given sphere.
Anyway, you can test (more or less cursorily)...

The time has come that you really MUST adapt your website to mobile devices. I explain why and suggest how to do it best.
Photo by: Hernán Piñera
‘Fix mobile usability issues found on …’
Such alerts have recently been received by those users of Google Webmaster Tools, whose websites are not adapted to mobile. If you don’t use GWT and your website is found not adapted it is bound to be ranked down in Google search results without any warning.
Yes, there’s no mistake here ‒ on 21 April 2015 Google starts to take ‘mobile usability’ of websites into account while assessing and ranking them in search results.
That is why website owners from all over the world have got down to the mobile versions of their websites that were neglected or didn’t exist at all.
But my clients don’t...

I’m reinventing the wheel and summarizing why it’s good to keep track of mentions of your brand on the Internet. Then I’m suggesting how to do it and select tools suitable to the needs and budget.
Why it’s worth monitoring your brand
Is your brand talked about? Then it’s good. But do they talk about it well? If you don’t know then it’s not good.
Photo by: Craig Sunter
Your brand is on the Internet, whether you want it or not. And what will be written about it will stay there forever.
If you have your head screwed on you actively use the Internet in your marketing and PR. And you include the social media because you know it well that even Google takes social signals into account when assessing websites and building its rankings.
That’s why you find it important to:
measure...

And how much is a house? This question is just as general and also can’t be answered without lots of additional information. ‘Universal’ cost of making a website is what people ask interactive agencies, individual website creators and Google about.
Photo by: Timothy Allen
WWW like a house
It was not without reason that I used an allegory of the house. Frankly speaking, it happened to me several times that I used it when talking to a client. It’s just because building a house – putting it in simple terms – is very similar to making a website.
First of all, a building can be used in various ways – it can be a residential (single-family or multifamily) house, office building, store, warehouse, sports facility etc.
Secondly, the size of the building and its components...

Google has finally introduced the long awaited functionality in Analytics – the world’s most popular package to track website traffic. An ability to automatically exclude traffic generated by bots.
Photo by: Sergey Ivanov
Bots and spiders
Some sources indicate that over 60% of web traffic is generated by robots – a software created to visit websites automatically.
There are many types of “bots”. Some of them are “spiders” (or “crawlers”), scanning web content and following links. The most famous one is GoogleBot (and its equivalents used by other search engines) – cataloging the Internet and constantly updating the data in its gigantic database. Spiders are also used by various tools for monitoring content, brand mentions, etc.
Unfortunately,...

Desktop monitors, laptops, netbooks, tablets, smartphones and even TV’s. There are so many devices and every one of them comes in many versions with different display sizes. And with mobile devices there’s also orientation (vertical/horizontal) to consider.
What’s more, there’s after all no obligation to use the web browser in a maximized window. In this way we get an unimaginable number of window sizes in which a website can be opened.
Photo by: Robert Couse-Baker
Web browsers
What makes it more difficult are the differences in how web standards are implemented by browser producers. There are quite a number of them but currently only 5 brands matter that have together dominated 90% of the market: Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari.
Fortunately, version...

This is a guest post written by our friends from Salt Lake City, following up to our previous post: “Company blog – where to find ideas for posts?“.
When you create a quality blog post, you may find yourself at a loss as to how you can promote it. Some small business owners can spend a lot of money trying to market their content, only to wind up with wasted content and very few followers. How can you share your blog content, and gain new readers? The thing to remember is to build solid connections with other blog owners and influencers. You need to be able to gain exposure for your blog post, especially if you know it is better than the others that are getting plenty of traffic. To help you change the way you market your blog posts, use these simple tips.
Photo by: AJ Cann
Check...

Start a company blog and write about what’s interesting for your clients. It’s easier said than done. What to blog about especially when your line of business is rather… boring?
You want to start using inbound marketing to attract traffic to your company website. You know that the center of such actions is valuable content. You start a company blog with a view to writing about the business you’re in. The first post is just great. The second is also fine. But you have to publish regularly, week after week. What’s more, it would be nice if your readers shared the posts. What you need is a blogging strategy.
Photo by: Jacob Bøtter
Company blog – is it really worth it?
If you still hesitate, let me give you some arguments for using the blog in marketing:
SEO
Google...